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Title: When rock stars go crazy!

Author: (Unknown)

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Publication: (Unsourced)

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Artist: Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Publish date: (Unknown)

Word count: 152

Reading time: 1 minute read

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When rock stars go crazy!

67 Mike Read bans Relax

Old-school Radio 1 hubris at its nadir.

The term “oxygen of publicity” was obviously unknown to mullet-headed Mike Read. True, Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s debut single alluded to the joys of fellatio — according to Holly Johnson, the much misheard key line goes “When you wanna suck it, chew it”. It is, however, unlikely that the playgrounds of Britain would have noticed or even understood this were it not for the publicity afforded by Read’s “high-minded” refusal in January 1984, to play the track on his show. Although Read’s denunciation led to a full-scale Radio 1 ban, the nation clasped the band — gay sauce and all — to its collective bosom. Relax’s 13 million sales worldwide effectively told Read where he could stick his sanctimony and paid him back for “taking some of the pleasure of being Number 1" away from Johnson.